Chaos caused by break-up

Eric Falconer’s letter of last week highlights the selective, naive views of many pro-independence campaigners that their assertions are right and anyone who disagrees is scaremongering and wrong.

The assertion that an independent Scotland would not be expelled from the EU because the chaos from the unravelling of the 40-year old EU union would be a nightmare (is this scaremongering?) is surely an even stronger endorsement that the 300-year-old Union within the UK should be retained. This nuts and bolts Union is far more complex and critical than the arms-length EU union and the chaos resulting from its break-up would be many times that of an EU exit.

Mr Falconer fails to mention this, either because he knows splitting the UK is absolute folly or he believes that an independent Scottish Government would be able to deal with the ensuing chaos effectively (but other EU states are incapable). This in itself is an insult to the other member states of the EU, implying they cannot resolve any issues coming from an EU exit of an independent Scotland.

I would also like to take exception to Mr Falconer’s comments on Scotland’s energy resources and the adverse impact on EU energy security if an independent Scotland was forced out of the EU.

Oil and gas is a global commodity traded on a global market, with the price set by OPEC and has nothing whatsoever to do with the EU. Norway is not a member of the EU and trades on the global market just like other producing country, as would an independent Scotland outside the EU.

UK oil and gas production is now less than six per cent of Eurasian production and has declined to the extent that it no longer even meets UK domestic demand, so offers no security of supply to the remainder of the EU.

Renewable energy supplies are in their infancy and the Scottish (very optimistic) target is to meet domestic requirements by 2020 – again no security of supply for the EU. Germany is more advanced in renewables and France favours nuclear power, so even if Scotland meets the 2020 target and can export then, I suspect much of the rest of Europe will be on the same footing.

Finally, I am at a loss with the comments on direct flights from Scotland. There are already many direct flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow to the key European centres. Given Scotland’s position on the northern tip of Europe, I do not see how this would be significantly bettered with independence.